India needs to triple egg availability to 180 per person

NEW DELHI, 14 October 2016 : With demand for nutrition food rising with growing population and rising income, India should have an availability of 180 eggs per person, as against the current 63 per person per annum.

While speaking at the World Egg Day 2016 at Pusa in New Delhi, Indian Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh said this adding though India is among the top egg producer countries in the world with 83 billion eggs, there is huge demand in the country.

In order to increase the production of eggs in the country, government has taken many initiatives that includes promoting poultry farming through National Livestock Mission (NLM).

Financial assistance is being given to the blow poverty line (BPL) families for poultry farming. Poultry farming is being promoted under the component of entrepreneurship development and employment generation.

These work has been taken so that health of the children improves and poultry farmers get benefits, Singh stressed.

Singh said on this occasion that awareness should be created among the people about the nutrition values of eggs and doctors, nutrition specialists, academicians, women and child institutes, egg processing industries and related policy makers can play a vital role in this.

One out of four children up to five years is suffering from malnutrition. Egg can help a lot in combating the malnutrition, Singh revealed.

High nutrition contents are available in eggs as well as it is a very good source of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, B12, Amino acid and Folate, Iron, Phosphorus & Selenium and added that the recent research shows that it is helpful in reducing blindness.

The minister said that National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), Compound Livestock Feed Manufacturers Association of India (CLFMA), Animal Health Companies, Poultry Federation of India (PFI) and Poultry Association have played a vital role in this programme. 

Caption: Radha Mohan Singh addressing at the inauguration of a Conference with theme “Nutritional & Income Security through Eggs”, on the occasion of the World Egg Day, 2016, in New Delhi on October 14, 2016.